1. Field
Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a water softening apparatus including an electrosorption unit which adsorbs foreign matter contained in water with electrical attraction.
2. Description of the Related Art
Water softening apparatuses remove a variety of foreign matter contained in water supplied from an external water supply source to soften the water. Among such water softening apparatuses, there is recently a water softening apparatus including an electrosorption unit which adsorbs foreign matter with electrical attraction.
The electrosorption unit includes a pair of electrodes which are disposed to be spaced apart from each other and to which power of opposite polarities is applied, and ionic binders which are disposed on surfaces of the two electrodes to adsorb ionized matter.
Accordingly, anionic matter is induced to the electrode side to which an anode is applied to be adsorbed onto the ionic binder, and cationic matter is induced to the electrode side to which a cathode is applied to be adsorbed onto the other ionic binder. Therefore, foreign matter contained in water is removed to complete softening of the water.
In a case of the water softening apparatus operated in this manner, scale is generated in the electrosorption unit by ionized matter collected within the electrosorption unit, and performance of the water softening apparatus is deteriorated as the scale is accumulated. Therefore, there is a need to periodically supply a cleaning solution to the electrosorption unit so as to remove the scale accumulated in the electrosorption unit.